Holly the Homemaker

As I'm sure most of you know, I pretty much don't eat here. My diet consists of eggs, dates, french fries, and hummus. It's very hard for me to find gluten-free foods. Ursinus kids, get this: AUD has Sandella's. No lie. I can't get away from our cafeteria food even halfway around the world! ha. Great news though, I found some gluten-free food!!! While I was at a new grocery store, I wishfully decided to check out the cake mixes. I know... Some of you are probably shocked that Holly, the super feminist, was looking to bake. All I have to say is that you've got to do what you've got do to when it comes to eating on a gluten free diet. haha. A girl needs her baked goods! Let's be real: in the States I could easily find a guy who would bake me a GF cake in a day or two, but here, sadly, it's just not happening. ha.

Now to continue with my story, guess what?! I found a brand called Melinda's that offers GF mixes for Chocolate Fudge Brownies and Apple & Rhubarb Crumbles. You might be asking yourself "What the heck is Apple & Rhubarb Crumble?" To you I answer, I have no idea, but I bought it. hahaha. I bought both of them. Any option is better than the zero options I had previously. Now I need a pan so I can start baking.  I'll have to stop at Carrefour in the mall tomorrow. :)

 Carrefour: The Walmart of the Middle East

On to another happy food story-- My Aunt Kelly and Rose sent me a package, which I am sure will be filled with more delicious treats. I have to go pick it up at the post office, which should be an adventure. I have never been to that part of the city yet. More on that in a few days. Thank you both for being amazing!


Now I guess to balance out my homemaker side, I have to tell you more about my feminist actions over here. I started a Women's Intercultural Dialogue group over here at my university with another study abroad student, Iberia. We held our first discussion last night. I did not have high expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised when 26 ladies showed up. We talked about issues arranging from abayas to abortions.

I honestly learned so much from listening to these women from all around the world discuss intense topics. One of the most interesting things that I learned last night was that in some religio-political groups in Islam, a baby isn't considered a "baby" until 40 days after conception. To them, it takes 40 days for the soul to reach earth and 40 days for it to leave. According to those groups, abortions are okay if they happen within the first 40 days. Who knew? I certainly did not expect anyone in the Middle East to condone abortions. I still have so much to learn. I'm hoping for great things out of these dialogues. We're going to meet once every other week. I'm pumped for our next gathering!

Since this post was all about women, I figured I'd add some pictures of English/Arabic signs around the Mall of the Emirates. Let's stereotype and say that "all women like shopping". Just kidding. :)